Twitter #HereWeAre Ad Featuring Queer Poet Denice Frohman Starts Conversation on Online Harassment

During Sunday night’s Oscars telecast, Twitter ran an ad about women calling attention to the hashtag #HereWeAre. The ad featured a poem by queer Latinx poet Denice Frohman and featured famous women like filmmaker Ava DuVernay and Insecure creator Issa Rae.

We stand with women around the world to make their voices heard and their presence known. To bring them front and center, today and every day. Join us as we say #HereWeAre pic.twitter.com/cN2Ik6bZU8

— Twitter (@Twitter) March 4, 2018

“I heard a woman becomes herself the first time she speaks without permission,” poet Denice Frohman says in the poem’s first line during the ad.

According to AdWeek, the full poem is called “#SheInspiresMe.”

Here it is… #sheinspiresme pic.twitter.com/1uPoWNFlSE

— g_cracker (@GCracker7) March 5, 2018

Many people loved seeing Frohman, a queer poet, centered with other women of color during this television spot.

Y’ALL’S FAVE OSCAR AD ON PRIMETIME TV WAS WRITTEN BY QUEER LATINX POET DENICE FROHMAN WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE https://t.co/rQKbteB2yW

— Fran Tirado (@fransquishco) March 5, 2018

Several women tweeted that they appreciated the commercial, but thought that it was incongruous with the actual Twitter platform, where women experience harassment often.

That @Twitter commercial was powerful, but also feels odd considering that I spent this past weekend being harassed by misogynist fat-shaming trolls, only be told that the Tweets didn’t violate their standards. Do better, Twitter, where it matters. #HereWeAre

— Rebecca Krevat (@RebeccaKrevat) March 5, 2018

GOOD JOB @TWITTER THAT WAS A GREAT COMMERCIAL now can you start kicking nazis off this platform #HereWeAre

— nicolette mason (@nicolettemason) March 5, 2018

RT if you’re a woman who has reported abuse/threats to @twitter and they told you they weren’t going to do anything about it. #HereWeAre

— Erin Matson (@erintothemax) March 5, 2018

twitter: “we stand with women and support making their voices and presence heard and known”

also twitter: *refuses to suspend people harassing women, threatening women, creating parody accounts to mock women, and suspends women who are mass-reported by trolls* #hereweare https://t.co/iwhnsd95wo

— diane alston (@dianelyssa) March 5, 2018

According to AdWeek, the hashtag campaign evolved from a hashtag first made up in January to talk about the lack of women speakers at CES, an annual business conference. The ad comes after Twitter has experienced a 50% uptick in conversations about women’s rights and gender equality.